Ruth Graves Wakefield facts for kids
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| Born | Ruth Jones Graves Wakefield June 17, 1903 East Walpole, Massachusetts |
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| Died | January 10, 1977 (aged 73) Plymouth, Massachusetts |
| Cooking style | American |
| Education | Framingham State Normal School |
| Spouse |
Kenneth Donald Wakefield
(m. 1926) |
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Previous restaurant(s)
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Ruth Jones Graves Wakefield (born June 17, 1903 – died January 10, 1977) was an amazing American chef. She is famous for inventing the very first chocolate chip cookie, called the Toll House Cookie. Ruth was also a dietitian, a teacher, a business owner, and an author.
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Ruth's Early Life and Education
Ruth Jones Graves was born on June 17, 1903. Her parents were Helen Vest Jones and Fred Graves. She grew up in a town called Easton, Massachusetts.
To learn more about food and health, Ruth went to college. She studied to become a dietitian and a food lecturer at what is now Framingham State College. She finished her studies in 1924.
In 1926, Ruth married Kenneth Wakefield. He worked as an executive in the meatpacking business. They had two children together: a son named Kenneth Donald Wakefield Jr. and a daughter named Mary Jane Wakefield.
The Famous Toll House Inn
Ruth and her husband bought a special place for travelers. They named it the Toll House Inn. It got this name because it was on an old road where people used to pay a fee, or "toll." This road connected Boston and New Bedford.
Ruth was the chef at the Inn. She cooked delicious meals using her own recipes. She also used some of her grandmother's old recipes. People loved her food so much that the Inn's dining room grew from seven tables to sixty! Her recipes were so popular that she even published cookbooks. Her most famous one was Ruth Wakefield's Tried and True Recipes, released in 1931.
How the Chocolate Chip Cookie Was Invented
Ruth noticed that her Inn didn't have many different kinds of cookies. She wanted to create something new and exciting. So, in 1938, she decided to experiment with semi-sweet chocolate.
She added chopped pieces of a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar to her cookie dough. The cookie was an instant hit! It became so popular that newspapers wrote about it. The Wakefields received tons of letters from people asking for the recipe. Soon, the Toll House Cookie became the most popular dessert of its time.
There's a story that Ruth accidentally made the cookie. Some people thought she expected the chocolate chunks to melt and make a chocolate cookie. But that's not true! Ruth said she planned to invent the cookie. She explained, "We had been serving a thin butterscotch nut cookie with ice cream. Everybody seemed to love it, but I was trying to give them something different. So I came up with Toll House cookie." The original recipe was called "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies."
Ruth gave Nestlé the recipe for her amazing cookies. In return, Nestlé gave her a lifetime supply of chocolate!
Toll House Cookies During World War II
The Toll House Cookies became even more famous in the 1940s, during World War II. Ruth's daughter helped her in the kitchen. They spent many days packing care packages for soldiers from Massachusetts who were fighting overseas.
Soon, they started getting letters from all over the country. People wanted these special cookies sent to troops from other states too. The cookies brought a taste of home to many soldiers far away.
Later Life and Legacy
Ruth retired in 1966. She sold the Toll House Inn. Sadly, the Inn later burned down in 1984. Ruth Graves Wakefield passed away on January 10, 1977, in Plymouth, Massachusetts. She was 73 years old. Her invention, the chocolate chip cookie, is still loved by people all over the world today!
See also
In Spanish: Ruth Graves Wakefield para niños
